


A different kind of silence

by Latenightsgunfights



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Can be read as Relationship or Platonic Friendship, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-Neutral V (Cyberpunk 2077), I'm back at It again with the unrealistic ships it's my brand at this point, Implied Relationships, Literal Sleeping Together, Recovery, Romance, The work Slut is used one time in a joking way, They would bang but I can't write smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29315349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Latenightsgunfights/pseuds/Latenightsgunfights
Summary: Johnny and V are finally apart, and in need of some much needed rest.[Response to tumblr post]
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand & V, Johnny Silverhand/V
Comments: 2
Kudos: 61





	A different kind of silence

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](https://lucretia-waits.tumblr.com/post/642614756409229312/thinkin-about-how-if-johnny-and-v-lived-after) from lucretia-waits on tumblr. It really got me inspired
> 
> V can be read as Non Binary or simply gender neutral to fit your own character.
> 
> I wasn't really fond of Johnny/V but can I admit ✋ writing this made me feel things

It was done. 

_Finally._

The tremble making its way through Vs bones was quiet, all slick and unnoticeable, until it caught them by surprise leaving their muscles rattling and spasming in exhaustion. 

Johnny had it too, interestingly. V saw the way his fingers twitched when he pulled a cigarette from the box. Silverhand had sat down on a nearby wall when they'd finally found fresh air again. Leaning back his skull thumped lightly against the concrete, and he momentarily regarded his newly found permanence with a wince before leaning back again, hands draped over the red painted denim on his thigh while his head tipped back, throat exposed. 

V had walked over, slowly, placing a calloused hand on Johnny's shoulder and deliberately ignoring his flich. 

"Wanna go home?" 

"Home?" his voice was strained, almost disbelieving, "I don't know, I was planning on breaking into Kerry's house again. His couch looks Gucci."

_"Johnny."_

"I- yeah."

V drove slow, unconcerned at the way their hands would occasionally slip, causing the car to swerve ever so slightly off course. It was nothing new in Night City anyway. 

Johnny dozed. _Dozed._ Head against the passenger side window, eye closed, glasses sliding slightly down the curved bridge of his nose. His arms were crossed across his chest, flesh hand idly fiddling with the ridged metal on his elbow joint. V wasn't sure if Johnny's strange silence was worse than the silence in their head. 

V pulled up close to the base of their block. For a moment they forgot; nearly stepping out of the car and towards the elevator without second thought. The fact that Johnny had his own body, could do his own thing, momentarily slipping their mind. 

Gingerly stepping around the vehicle, V winced as their knees clicked sharply when they bent to Johnny's eye level. 

They knocked on the window. "Oi, Sleeping Beauty, time to climb the steps to thy castle."

"Fuck off."

"Must be _so_ hard not being a tapeworm, I feel sorry for you."

Johnny didn't respond, just mumbled a mockery of Vs previous words under his breath in a tone familiar and _ancient._

V opened the door and wrapped his flesh arm _all too gently_ around their shoulders. "It's not twenty twenty anymore, man, your Internet memes suck."

"You callin' me a senior citizen?" 

Johnny's _youthful physique_ fell into V as they lifted him. Exhaustion making him heavy and slightly more shameless than usual. V caught him with a hand on his chest, fingers just brushing the exposed skin through his low cut tank top. Johnny wriggled his eyebrows. "Like what you see?"

"Slut." The insult was exhaled through clenched teeth, hoping Silverhand couldn't feel the burn across their cheeks and ears. "Maybe if you put your cleavage away we'd have an easier time getting to bed." 

Johnny wiggled his eyebrows _harder._

* * *

They supported each other out the elevator and up the stairs. V found their exhaustion equal to Johnny's. Silverhand's thin fingers snaked around their hips sometime between exiting the car and standing at the door; V didn't have enough bite left to comment. They punched the code in with their free hand and the apartment door hissed open. 

Johnny pulled free and stumbled through the door, knocking over a bag of _something_ from the kitchen counter before collapsing, stomach down, on Vs bed. V ignored the mess and followed, resisting the urge to flop down after him and instead reaching over, placing their hand on his shoulder and shaking him just enough that his brown hair tumbled past his shoulders and across the pale sheets. 

"Hey Johnny," they said gently, softly, kindly; awkwardly relieved that they had the privilege to speak to him, to hear him breathe and fill the wasteland their mind became since he'd left. "We gotta get these bloody clothes off, yeah? Then we can sleep."

Fingers twitched as Silverhand dug them into the sheets, clenching, his prosthetic loosening the fibers and straining them thin and threadbare. Strong arms pushed himself up and around in one swift motion, hair falling into his eyes. He huffed it away and it didn't move. V desperately wanted to brush it away like some kind of fairytale royal, to take their delicate hand and stroke his cheek and face and look into his eyes. But it wasn't like that. _They_ weren't like that. Their delicate fairy hands were rough and calloused from fingers on triggers, their royal crown a helmet they'd stolen from a body in the midst of a firefight. They dropped their hand and got up with their back to him. Johnny didn't move. 

Muscles strained as V stretched, reaching up on their tip toes like a feline, spine and shoulders clicking and croaking, joints shaking with the effort. Next they started removing their shirt, strong muscles tugging it up and across their muscled stomach and chest. They used the removed shirt to wipe the blood off their shoulders, rubbing their neck, before noticing eyes on their bare back. 

V turned around, unashamed at their partial nudity, and Johnny's exhausted, glazed over eyes stared at their face before slowly skulking down their chest, mouth open slightly. V smiled but not unkindly. They quickly removed their pants, stripping down to their boxers. 

V stepped back over to where Johnny was sitting, standing in between his spread legs and running their palms down his shoulders in a way that could be sexual yet was anything but. V removed his shades from his hair slowly, noting his eyes still had that glossy look to them. V mused it was probably a sick cocktail of relief, lust, exhaustion, or the sheer confusion that came with the gentle touch from a friend. No snickered comments, no argumentative tones. 

They pulled his shirt over his head. 

V crouched slowly and reached for his pants, but Johnny shook his head hard. They backed off and let him remove them, the implication of _them_ doing it a little too much for the gentle moment. 

He moved aside and V got in first without question. Johnny didn't want to be against the wall, not after so long. They pulled the cover up and over their side and rested their head on the pillow, looking at Johnny's back where he still sat on the side. 

"Come. Let's sleep." The coax was gentle, and V predicted they'd have to fit extra teasing in tomorrow to make up for the sap. Johnny leaned back on his side of the bed, facing the ceiling momentarily before rolling so he faced V. 

There was this strange sort of silence where they just _looked_ at each other, words unsaid, uncomfortable and yet comforting. Johnny's eyes were hazy and half lidded. _Fuck._

"You got me all hot and bothered now."

_He had to go and-_

V rolled over. "Fuck off and go to sleep, weirdo."

They didn't pull away when a metal arm snaked over their side and pulled them close.

* * *

When V woke up it was mid afternoon, the sun casting long shadows through the blinds. Something was missing, a part of their routine left undone. They looked around at the calm apartment before realising. Johnny's softly snoozing face enough to jolt the memory back. 

_Oh_.

This was the first time, in a painfully long while, that they'd woken up _themselves._ In every sense of the word. Their body, just V, deciding it was time to wake. No cold sweat or screaming. No fear that there just wasn't enough _time._

They looked down at Johnny's face again with this newfound readiness they'd never quite felt before. V slid out of bed and into the shower. 

Water ran through their hair and face, over collarbones and through crevices. V felt like they were scrubbing off their skin, washing their heart away and restarting. 

Johnny slid in behind them, bare skin brushing their back as he adjusted himself, and V battled to keep their tone cool, disinterested and bitchy. 

"Do you _mind?"_

"No?" 

_Unbelievable._

V carried on cleaning, trying to ignore the way his hair stuck to his neck. 

"Is this your idea of flirting?" It was risky. V wasn't quite sure what they were. 

"Oh _yes,_ I find saving water _incredibly_ sexy _."_

V snorted. 

* * *

"We're gonna go grab some food today."

"Are we?"

Johnny was, thank God, _dressed._ Though it had taken some convincing. 

"Yeah, you knocked over the last food I had yesterday," V surveyed the bloody clothes he'd put back on, "and then we're going to buy some clothes for you to wear."

"I haven't eaten in _a while._ " 

"Which is why you need to now. Let's go, your Majesty. You want me to hold the door open for you?" 

Johnny rolled his eyes and followed. 

* * *

V kept glancing at Johnny as they ate. His eyebrows had risen in surprise at the flavour, and he'd looked at V with this pleasant smirk that left a light feeling in their stomach. 

The silence wasn't uncomfortable, like it had been. Instead of giving them a feeling of loneliness or fear, it gave them companionship and peace. Johnny could be here, could say as he wished, without headaches or bloody noses. Maybe silence was welcome, simply forgotten after it's long trip away. 

Johnny had put down the plastic knife he held in his silver hand but continued eating with the other, laying his prosthetic down flat. _Inviting_. V wondered why he didn't just go for it, they'd done closer things. Showering together was on the table but hand holding wasn't?

V looked at the prosthetic, at the choice that came with it, realising that having a choice wasn't something either of them had been used to as of late. 

Their flesh fingers brushed the shiny metal of Johnny's knuckles before flinching, the cold weather had bitten into the metal and left it cool to the touch. 

Johnny's eyebrows raised again, almost sadly, before he realised. Johnny held his hand over his steaming plate minutely, not enough to burn, and then brought it back to its previous resting place. V thought of all the people, Kerry or Rogue, that told them that Johnny wasn't like that, that Johnny didn't _do shit for others._ For a moment V panicked, wondering if their time together had fucked him up as much as it fucked them. 

They took Johnny's hand and it was warm.

* * *

Johnny only let go of their hand when he caught the threadbare Samurai hoodie they'd thrown at him. The thrift store was the third they'd visited so far, and the hoodie was one of many _'gems'_ V had asked him to look at. 

It had the crumbling Samurai logo on the front and a beech stain on the sleeve but it was heavy and warm, fleece lined on the inside. 

V grinned at him. 

"Looks like you."

"How so?" 

"A little crusty and _old-"_

"V!" 

" _But_ it looks warm and cool."

" _Real_ _smooth_."

"As always."

Johnny smirked, "Kerry would kill me if i wore this."

"You can wear it to dinner, we're invited."

V laughed and kept walking, and Johnny followed them without putting the jacket back. 

* * *

The shopping trip was fun. Johnny found himself surprised when V put his bags in their car, waiting for him to get in before driving. 

Johnny found himself even more surprised when V unpacked his bags, finding his clothing its very own place in _their_ wardrobe. 

Johnny slid into the kitchen, his new hoodie muffling the clink of his arm against the side as he leaned forward on a seat. He looked around the apartment, at the roof over his head, with this sense of longing and relief in his chest. His mouth felt dry. 

"So… V?" 

"Yep?" They tucked one of his shirts onto a coat hanger. 

"The whole _'home'_ thing? That offer still standing?" 

The coat hanger clicked against the rail; V looked at him. "Of course it is."

Johnny exhaled hard and choking, all happy and confused and exhausted. A grin found his lips before he could stop it. 

"Cool. But we're changing the wallpaper, and I want one of those hammock chairs."

V threw a T shirt at him, their laugh a pleasant change from the silence. 

  
  
  



End file.
